The Patriot Post® · Monday Short Cuts

The Gipper: “We don’t have an option of living with inflation and its attendant tragedy. We have an alternative, and that is the program for economic recovery. True, it’ll take time for the favorable effects of our program to be felt. So, we must begin now. The people are watching and waiting. They don’t demand miracles. They do expect us to act. Let us act together.”

Insight: “The power of morality is the greatest of all intellectual powers — and mankind’s tragedy lies in the fact that the vicious moral code men have accepted destroys them by means of the best within them.” —Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

Upright: “The Left likes to measure progress based how many people depend on government benefits like Obamacare, food stamps and welfare. Conservatives measure progress based on how many people are working and providing for themselves and their families.” —Gary Bauer

Braying Jenny: “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that blue states, athletes, actors, writers, producers, and directors will be punished by this scam of a tax bill, where billionaires get billions, and the middle class gets bupkis (practically nothing) — and an eventual tax increase.” —multi-millionaire Barbra Streisand, who seems not very willing to pay her “fair share”

Rules are for the little guys: “[Trump is] a f—ing stupid person.” —ESPN host Katie Nolan, who avoided suspension

Belly laugh of the week: “This book is not about my impression of the president. I came into this with no agenda. I continued to have no political agenda.” —"Fire and Fury" author Michael Wolff

Reality check: “I have never felt more conservative and more defensive of the middle of the country than I have before I started working on [The View].” —Meghan McCain

And last… “Looking forward to 2020 presidential campaign when we learn that the entire problem with a celebrity president is that we want nice inexperienced TV stars running the country, not mean inexperienced TV stars.” —David French